Gunther (Barry Murphy) tells it how it is on last night’s Irish Pictorial Weekly on RTE 1.
Watch in full here.
Category Archives: Politics
[File pic: Loyalist protesters burn a tricolour at Belfast City Hall in December 2012]
The flying of the Irish tricolour on government buildings has been ruled out by Richard Haass. The former US diplomat is heading a team attempting to resolve the issues of parades, flags and the past. It is understood his proposals include a licensing system for the flying of flags, a trauma centre and new bodies for dealing with parading and the past.
He appears to have ruled out the flying of the Irish tricolour on government buildings but backed designated days for flying the union flag. Dr Haass will meet the parties individually on Friday morning and there will be a round table session in the afternoon.
Haass proposals: Flying of Irish tricolour ruled out (Stephen Walker, BBC News NI)
Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland
A new Northern Ireland flag should be created to complement the Union Flag – but flying the Irish Tricolour would probably see Stormont collapse, a unionist veteran has said.
Lord Kilclooney, who was first elected to the old Stormont in 1965 and served as a minister under both James Chichester-Clark and Brian Faulkner, warned that any attempt to fly the Republic of Ireland’s flag north of the border would be deeply destabilising.
“As a result of the Belfast Agreement the people of the Republic of Ireland voted to abandon their territorial claim over Northern Ireland. To now fly the Tricolour officially would be contrary to that decision and would undermine the Agreement, leading probably to the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly.”
New Northern Ireland flag should be created, says Lord Kilclooney (Sam McBride, Belfast Newsletter)
Previously: Anything Good In The Irish News?
Brian O’Leary/Photocall Ireland
Meanwhile at the Fianna Fáil Adare-Rathkeale cumann selection convention last Thursday…
The decision resulted in a straight contest between the two remaining candidates – sitting councillor Kevin Sheahan and barrister Emmett O’Brien. Mr Sheahan marginally won the vote. However, the convention descended into chaos over the party’s pre-selection strategy. A number of Mr O’Brien’s supporters formed a human chain in a bid to obstruct a party official from leaving the room to count the ballots. The official was left with no option but to count the ballots at the top table of the meeting, which was being chaired by the party’s children’s spokesman, Robert Troy.
“There was holy f***ing war but if party headquarters think they can act like a dictatorship, they have another thing coming,” said one member who asked not to be named.
Watch exclusive footage here.
Senator Darragh O’Brien (left) and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.
Fianna Fáil Senator Daragh O’Brien says he’s in posession of information that will rock the National Asset Management Agency to it’s core.
— Newstalk 106-108 fm (@Newstalkfm) December 16, 2013
Where’s Winelake when you need him/her?
(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)
Meanwhile…
Senator O’Brien and Cameron from Modern Family.
Uncanny.
Minister of State Brian Hayes (left) spoke on BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight on Friday with presenter Ritula Shah.
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Ritula Shah: “There are a lot of people emigrating. A lot of people are voting with their feet and getting out and there is a question if austerity is to continue, you know how much more can people take?”
Brian Hayes: “Well, emigration has been a feature since our independence from Britain. In the last 12 months, yes, 80,000 people have left. But 50,000 people have come back. And of the 80,000 who have left, half of them were non-Irish nationals who were going back to third countries where they had come from originally in the European Union. There is a lot of churn within the population figures and I think what we need to do is to keep those people in Ireland because they’re going to be the social entrepeneurs, they’re going to be the business start-up people of the future.”
Right so.
Listen in full here.
Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland
Follow That
at
RT @wearerabble: And they say RTÉ doesn’t do comedy. Enda’s State of the Nation followed by Room to Improve pic.twitter.com/jLnhJevebw
— Paul Reynolds (@PaulFedayn) December 15, 2013
A heartwarming video by Zurich disability advocacy group Pro Infirmis for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities showing the construction of scoliotic and limbless mannequins, which were displayed in department store windows on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse on International Day of Persons with Disabilities this Tuesday to raise awareness and acceptance.
A lot done. More to do.
Now lose the robe, sweet-cheeks.
Behind You
at
Derry LGBT activist Shá Gillespie welcomes NI Health Minister Edwin Poots to the Western Trust’s Public Facing Accountability meeting in Altnagelvin Hospital last night.
That’s a right quare fleg ye have there, sister.
Via neocelt
Previously: Edwin Poots on Broadsheet